Science News Roundup: NASA sets launch date for SpaceX U.S; Coronavirus forces detour for homecoming astronauts

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Coronavirus forces detour for homecoming astronauts

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir will take an unusual - and more exhausting - route home after safely landing in the Kazakh steppe on Friday, a Russian healthcare official said, because of lockdowns caused by the novel coronavirus. A capsule carrying Morgan, Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka touched down southeast of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan at 1117 local time, as scheduled, after nine months on the International Space Station.

NASA sets launch date for SpaceX U.S. manned mission to the space station

NASA on Friday set a launch date of May 27 for its first astronaut mission from U.S. soil in nearly ten years. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, will send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida - marking the company's first mission carrying humans aboard.

(With inputs from agencies.)